Review: August in England

There are some actors for whom acting is an absolute art. They can make you feel drastically different emotions within seconds just by changing the intonation of their voice. Lenny Henry, whom I had the pleasure of watching in his playwriting debut August in England at Bush Theatre today, is one of those actors.

Spoilers ahead

The performance begins as though a party — Henry immediately engages the audience, playing reggae, handing out rum, and showing off his dance moves. But the play hints at something darker — a projector flashes moving images of Henry in a cold, empty room across the back wall.

We’re swept away in the title character’s life story, from his first impressions of his father’s dingy room in Peckham where he came as a child to the heartbreaking betrayal that awaited his mother, finding his father in bed with a redhead. He moves quickly through his early years, joining a band and meeting his life partner, having three kids and opening a shop.

But then tragedy strikes — his partner is diagnosed with cancer. He finds solace in the arms of another redhead, betraying his beloved at her most vulnerable. And as he deals with the aftermath, life has more in store. August Henderson, as he’s called, begins receiving letters from Capita casting doubt as to his right to remain in the country.

As he slowly builds his life back up with the help of his new fiancee Vilma, he’s dealt another blow by losing all his documentation in an unfortunate industrial accident. Unable to prove his legality, he’s detained and questioned. We come full circle, back to the cold, empty room in which August sits at the immigration facility.

The story has no resolution. Instead, a series of interviews with those affected by the Windrush scandal is shown. And while we now know that the Windrush generation has been vindicated and able to return to their lives from which they were cruelly uprooted, the question remains — why did this have to happen? When will we realise that human beings are not illegal and treat each other with dignity and compassion?

And while compensation has now been paid for this shameful chapter in British history, we’re reminded of the human cost. A powerful piece — brilliantly written, brilliantly staged, and brilliantly acted.

August in England is at Bush Theatre until 10 June, but has now sold out.

Review: Bauplan

I may have mentioned once or twice that I’m in a running club. Ironically, I spend much more time talking about being in a running club than actually participating in training, but that’s by the by. In any case, I met some wonderful people in said running club, and one of our committee members is part of a band.

So yesterday we popped down to a wonderful venue in west London — Troubadour — to watch Bauplan launch their latest single, featuring James Burton and Angie Gannon as the opening act. We arrived halfway through Burton’s set.

The acoustics were perfect for the intimate set up — a singer-songwriter sitting on a barstool, strumming his guitar. All the tables were taken, so we positioned ourselves at the side of the stage on a church pew. It was an excellent turnout for a Tuesday night, and got even busier the closer we got to the main act.

I really enjoyed Burton’s performance — he had a melodic voice and a Leonard Cohen vibe, except if Cohen was transplanted to and obsessed with London. The only slight criticism I would have is that a lot of his lyrics seemed on-the-nose, a little too obvious.

We had a brief intermission before Bauplan took the stage, and the contrast was massive — after being lulled into a reflective contemplation by Burton’s storytelling, we were shaken out of it by Bauplan’s loud 80s arena rock style sound.

What really struck me is how valued each member of the band was — often, it’s all about the frontman, but in Bauplan, each musician had a chance to shine, and shine they did. From complex drumming arrangements to switching instruments mid-song to supporting vocals, they did it all.

I particularly enjoyed the more up-beat songs, which had the audience dancing in their seats. It was immediately obvious which musicians were influenced by which genre — with its punk sound, the song written by Bauplan’s drummer was one of my absolutely favourites of the evening’s performance.

It was a great night — excellent music, fantastic venue, and the company of new friends. We’ll definitely be back, both at Troubadour and at Bauplan’s future gigs.

Running the Sutton 10k

My running club organises a 10k run every year to raise money for operating costs. I’m lucky enough to be considered “fast” and was invited to be one of the six club members actually participating.

Unfortunately, I didn’t live up to expectations. It seems I haven’t learned from previous experiences and made the same mistakes – running on tired legs, not eating anything ahead of the race, overestimating my pace, and failing to account for weather conditions.

It meant my time was considerably over my target of a sub-50 min finish. I ran it in 53:14 (gun time, chip time was 9 seconds faster), which isn’t as bad as I’d feared given that I had to resort to walking in several sections. That said, it was a phenomenal event and the support felt fantastic.

I particularly enjoyed running twice past my husband, who was marshalling the event, and yelling “thank you, marshall!” He was not impressed and ignored me both times. But at least I got a kick out of it.

We stuck around until the end, cheering on the remaining runners and then helping clear up. I’ve since been invited to more club activities, such as a half marathon in Spain and something known as “handicap”, which is where you try to predict your own results.

The Sutton 10k is yet another reminder to take my running more seriously and approach it with more care. But now that the weather’s warm, I won’t have any issues convincing myself to take longer runs on the weekends, so here’s hoping for a sub-50 10k next time around!

Review: TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera]

If watching a musical cast of political caricatures is not the most quintessentially British experience, I don’t know what is. Even better, we were seated in the front row — though, to our luck, right enough to avoid the chewed carrot pieces the actor portraying Tony Blair spewed onto the shocked theatregoers in the very centre.

Why was Tony Blair chewing a carrot to begin with? It was fed to him by the actor playing Peter Mandelson as part of a “carrot and stick” sketch, of course. With the “carrot” being the populist policies Blair pursued.

The entire piece was incredibly well done — with humour and poignant political commentary. I was particularly amused to overhear an elderly woman’s comments to her companion as we made our way out of Leicester Square Theatre after the show — “it’s all true, you know”.

In retrospect, we can, of course, see how many of us were manipulated into supporting the undefined “war on terror”, how the “special relationship” between Blair and Bush resulted in the Iraq war, and how tragedies — such as the death of Princess Diana — were used for political purposes.

But, as the performance underlines at the very end — we’d probably have him back. We’re susceptible to charm, to manipulation, to populism at the expense of real issues affecting the country, and that’s the real shame.

TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] is at Leicester Square Theatre until 21 May.